The day Dean Vickerman dropped 32 points on me

• NBL legend Lanard Copeland has joined Basketball.com.au as a columnist for the playoffs
• Copeland won two NBL championships with the Melbourne Tigers
• He has tipped Melbourne United to beat Illawarra 3-2

COPES' CORNER — An insight with NBL legend Lanard Copeland

I remember when I arrived in Australia to play for the Melbourne Tigers in 1991.

I had flown from Atlanta to Texas, from Texas to California, California to New Zealand, New Zealand to Brisbane, Brisbane to Sydney and then Sydney to Melbourne. It was my first time ever in Australia and back then you didn't have the internet, so you didn't know how or where you were going.

Anyway, it just seemed like it took forever because you had delays and everything, so there I am in Melbourne around 30 hours later and I'm dead. I'm jet lagged dead. Jet lag drunk is what they used to call it.

I get picked up at the airport, go to the hotel, meet the general manager of the Tigers and all I wanted to do was lay down, I didn't know what time it was because the time is all messed up for me. But then a couple of hours later, Warrick Giddey knocks on my door and says "I'm Warrick Giddey, I'm your teammate, I'm here to pick you up, take you to training".

We trained at the old Albert Park and I get to training and Lindsey Gaze says hello but you could see a little bit of disappointment because they thought I was going to be a bigger guy, they were looking for a four man but I was a two.

Back then Albert Park stadium, the rings were probably not 10 feet, they maybe nine and a half, nine, and so I'm in there just flying through the air, dunking everything, trying to impress and Lindsey says "let's have a scrimmage". Andrew Gaze was in Greece or somewhere overseas playing so Dean Vickerman was the point guard on the other team.

I'm guarding and I'm thinking this little kid, who had the baby face, who is he? Anyway, by the time that ball went up the jet lag had well an truly hit me in the front and in the back. I'm seeing stars and Dean Vickerman goes for 32 points in this scrimmage against me.

Now I was never a great defender, but I was better than that, okay? You got to understand, flying that long, we trained the same day I landed. So, I had nothing, I must admit it. And so I think Andrew called Lindsey the next day to say, "how's the new guy, what's the import look like?" Lindsey goes, well, he's very athletic, he's not the guy we wanted, he can fly, but his defence is terrible. I never lived that down.

Dean Vickerman gave me 32 points in a practice game, the first practice game I got here. So, every time I see Dean, we laugh and joke about that.

But I think it kind of set the tone for what type of coach he is, he's tenacious and his teams resemble that.

He was one of those guards that was always up and i, one of those little nagging guards that bothered you, maybe not like a Shea Ili, but he was always a defender, like always trying to get on your nerves. He could knock down the three, he was a quality player and wouldn't have been training with the Tigers if he wasn't.

Then I remember when he joined Gazey and I as an assistant coach at the Sydney Kings, he'd just come offa very successful time with the New Zealand Breakers, winning a championship there and you could just see why he was such a good head coach.

From day one, Dean said let me take over the defence. Dean's claim to fame is his defensive knowledge and knowing how to shut people down and knowing how to get into the offences of other teams.

He was my roomie with the Kings, and we'd go to the room after a game, and we'd have the twin big beds and the first thing Dean would do was open up his computer. It's midnight or 1am and he's on the computer, he's going through what happened with the game, who didn't do their assignments, what we've got to work on tomorrow. So, that was every night we were on the road and sometimes you just feel like, man, I'm tired. I want to go to sleep.

But he was in that room, he was on that other bed and you could always see that computer light, and he was always working there. So, you always figured Dean was going to be a quality coach. You probably couldn't predict he was going to have this much success when he went on to Melbourne United but you knew he was the right person for the job.

The best thing about Dean Vickerman is he knows how to get the best out of his players. It's his no-nonsense approach, he lets you know from day one, we're not messing around and if you don't like what I got, what I'm serving up, then you probably won't be here. A lot of coaches can't demand the best from their superstars but Dean's always been that kind of guy to tell you straight up, I need this from you and if you can't give it to me, I've got to get somebody else to do it.

For me, as far as coaches in NBL history, there's the upper echelon of Brian Goorjian and Lindsey Gaze then I think you add Trevor Gleeson in there and maybe Phil Smyth as well and then I think it's Dean Vickerman. He's that good.

United are a game up in the NBL Championship Series and a big reason for that is the adjustments Dean made at halftime but he would know, better than anyone else, that Justin Tatum is a great coach and Illawarra will be ready for game two.